I'm been thinking a lot lately about sewing, a wonderful hobby I initially learned in 4-H, but learned to enjoy when I lived in California after college graduation, landed my first professional job and spent time with two aunts. Both Aunt Bea and Aunt Jean were excellent seamstresses and taught me the joy of sewing. I haven't sewed anything in years, but it is starting to percolate in my senses. And why am I writing about it in a food/exercise blog? Because it struck me how much this journey to health is like sewing. When I bought material and pinned and cut out the pattern pieces, among the tools near my sewing machine was a seam ripper. That may not be the correct term,

but it was used to rip out seams that were not sewed straight, or I caught up some unintended fabric as I sewed. It is a necessary tool because those things always happened. Not a lot, but they were part of sewing a beautiful garment. And that's what I have accepted about living a healthy lifestyle: most of the time I have exercised and eaten wonderful foods, but there also have been times I have veered from the course (call it a zig-zag stitch). Instead of getting angry at myself and making emotional eating worse, I have concluded it is simply the way I am. So I spend time tugging at issues and unraveling whatever is bothering me, and then get back on a straight course.

Today is a new beginning for me: I teach a journalism class at Michigan State University and tonight is the first class of the fall semester. It is very exciting in many ways, among them meeting 18 young men and women.

One other comment: do you have days or moments that seem to be forever etched in your memory? One of those days happened to me on a recent Saturday, when our son, AJ, was home for business meetings and spent the weekend with us. That Saturday I gardened for several hours in the morning, then rewarded myself with an 8-mile bicycle ride on the Falling Waters Trail. In the afternoon AJ, my husband Jerry and I played 18 holes of golf at Arbor Hills Country Club. The day ended with a campfire in our backyard.